ADJOURNED INQUEST AT LYTTELTON.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1795, 21 November 1879, Page 3

ADJOURNED INQUEST AT LYTTELTON.

The adjourned inquest upon Albert Fogarty was held yesterday afternoon, in the Mitre Hotel, Lyttelton. The circumstances attending the death of the child were related in the evidence taken on the sth November. The evidence of the doctor was first called as to the result of his examination of the child’s head.

H. McDonald, M.D., sworn, said—l examined the head of the child, and found the brain and membranes quite healthy, almost bloodless. If the milk in the feeding bottle was allowed to remain a considerable time, so as to curdle, I would not consider it proper food for the child. The abrasion on the left cheek of the child I could not say positively was caused by the child lying on that side on a damp or wet bed. I consider the child did not die from want of food, certainly, as there was food in the stomach. The child died from general emaciation. There was no sign of recent bronchitis. To the Coroner—l didn’t observe anything particular in the mesenteric glands.

Elizabeth Joughin, sworn,stated—l am the wife of Robert Joughin, living on Brenchley Farm, near Mrs Fogarty’s place—about 300 yards from her house. About nine weeks since I visited Mrs Fogarty’s. I knew the little child Albert. I nursed it occasionally. I never lived in her house but when Mrs Anthony, living at Mrs Fogarty’s, was confined, I nursed her. I don’t think the deceased was’treated right. The witness was here cautioned to be careful.

Continuing—l don’t think the mother of the child kept it clean. When I saw it it was on a little bed near the fire-place, in the kitchen. I saw it many times lying there ;it lay on its left side. Sometimes the mother had it on her knee. I have seen it lying in that bed when the mother was away from home. I used to send my little girl up for it, as the mother couldn’t very well look after both of them (twins). She used to bring the feeding bottle up with her, with milk in it. The bottle came very dirty ; I cleaned it and put fresh milk into it. The milk in the bottle was, I think, condensed milk. It was all curdled. I saw it two or three times in the condition I speak of. The child was very dirty when brought to me. I mean its clothes were dirty. I washed the child two or three times, because it was so red and raw. Its legs were pretty red. It was dressed in a long white nighttown, I have seen Mrs Fogarty take out the other baby. She did so because deceased was on the bottle, and the other had the breast. I don’t know whether the child was left any length of time. Mrs Anthony used to mind the child, I believe, but the mother used to leave it when Mrs Anthony was confined to bed. I was nursing Mrs Anthony at the time. The bed the child lay on was usually very dirty. The milk in the bottle was very sour, I noticed. I saw Mrs Fogarty give the child the feeding bottle when the milk was sour. I didn’t make any remark to her about it. I never heard Mrs Fogarty say anything about the child being troublesome, or wishing anything done with it. I never saw Mrs Fogarty illuse the child, and I don’t think she was intentionally unkind to it. She is a very untidy woman.

Caroline Charlotte Macdougall, sworn, said —I am the wife of John Macdougall, living at Brenchley Farm. I live about 150 yards from Fogarty’s. I remember about the Ist of September last. I was passing Mrs Fogarty’s house. She called me, and I asked after the deceased, and she asked me in to see it. 1 saw it. It was lying on a stretcher beside the fire. She said it was very bad with bronchitis, and she had had it down to Dr. Bennett’s. The child appeared to me to be very hungry. It was gasping, and its mouth was wide open. She gave it the feeding bottle, but it seemed to me that it hadn’t the power to suck it. The bottle was very dirty, about half an inch thick with sour milk.. The bed clothes seemed very dirty, and the clothes about the child. I came out of the house then. She came out with me. I told her I thought the child wouldn’t live. Those are the words I used. She said in reply, “It would be a God’s blessing were it taken away, as it was such a sufferer.” I don’t know whether she meant any harm to the child. As I came away she called to her boy, Dave, to go and give the child the bottle. I don’t know whether he gave it or not. I came away then, and haven’t seen the child since. I saw the deceased and the other twin when a fortnight old, and finer children I never saw than they were. At that time the deceased appeared to be as large as the other one, but not when I last saw it.

Eliza Blackler, sworn, said—l am the wife of Edwin Blackler, stonemason, living at Brenohley Earm. I live about two chains from Mrs Fogarty’s house. I visit there once or twice a day. I knew the deceased child from his birth. He was in very good health until about three weeks old. I wept up of a Sunday, and I noticed the child failing. His father was nursing it. On the Friday previous to the child’s death, I saw the bottle very dirty, and I told the mother how to clean it, and she cleaned it out. _ I never saw Mrs Fogarty ill-treat the child in any way at all. X never had any reason to suppose that Mrs Fogarty wished the child was dead. This being all the evidence, the coroner read over that taken on the former inquiry to the jury, Xn commenting upon it, the coroner said they should consider whether the mother was culpable as being the cause of the child’s death. It seemed that the mother was a slovenly woman, dirty in her habits ; but, it would be for the jury to consider whether she had been so wilfully careless as to have caused the death of her child.

The jury retired to consider the evidence, returning with a verdict that “ Albert Fogarty died on November 4tb, at Lyttelton, from general emaciation, accelerated by the neglect of his mother, Mary Ann Fogarty.” The coroner,in informing Mrs Fogarty of the verdict, said that the jury had given very careful attention to the evidence, and she had reason to bo thankful to them for their leniency. They had found that the death of her child was accelerated by her neglect, though they didn’t consider she had wilfully acted to destroy it. The circumstance should be one to warn her in her neglectful habits, and the management of her children. Though she was now, he believed, a teetotaller, yet at one time she had not been so temperate, and ho hoped the narrow escape she had had of being charged with the manslaughter of her child would be sufficient to show her how necessary was the change in her habile which she had recently taken.